Blog of Monica Valentinelli, Writer & Content Consultant

Posted on September 2, 2008 - by Monica Valentinelli

Why I’ll Try Google Chrome — the New Open Source Browser

Like millions of other people today, I’m going to be downloading the Beta version of Google Chrome, Google’s new open source browser. I just spent the last twenty minutes reading the behind-the-scenes look into Google Chrome, through a comic designed for people like you and me. (http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/index.html)

Why am I downloading it? Well, if Google Chrome were “just another browser,” I probably wouldn’t take the time to bother with it, honestly. But it’s not. This browser was designed with stability, speed, security and usability in mind; it’s an evolution of other open-source browsers like Firefox and Webkit. (Webkit is an open source web browser engine, also used by Mac’s Safari.)

• Stability: Do you surf in multiple tabs? Have tons of different windows open? Experience crashes throughout the day? Well, I do. Per the comic, one of the reasons why you experience these crashes is memory. Every time you open a tab, a little memory gets used up. Even after you close the tab the memory is still being used, so after a while you have one big conglomerated memory mess. With Chrome, memory is recycled. So? Less crashes. There are other reasons why this browser is supposed to be more stable, but that was one of the ones that seemed really attractive to me.
• Speed and Security: The side effect of utilizing memory better is speed. Google Chrome is supposed to be faster because it is more efficient, but also because it’s supposed to be more secure. Definitely needs to be tested, but it’s claiming to block all pop-ups with the way its designed; it’s also targeting malware and phishing in a different, more robust way because of the financial risks involved with the attacks. Each tab is designated to be a “sandbox,” where each acts as an isolated function.
• Usability: Tabs will be placed at the top of your browser instead of underneath your bookmarks; new tabs will be defaulted to your search history view. Here are some screenshots of Google Chrome. You’ll notice that your nine, most visited sites show up on the left, in the larger space, and your search history shows up in the column at right. In addition to the “new tab” view, you’ll get your own search box at the top, called an “Omnibox” by Googlers.

The Omnibox handles far more than just URLs. It also offers suggestions for searches, top pages you’ve visited before, pages you haven’t visited but are popular and more…SOURCE–Google Chrome comic

The search history feature requires Google to collect your personal information, which may raise privacy concerns for some. There is an “opt out” policy for this service, so keep that in mind if you’re worried about Google collecting data from you.

If Google Chrome takes off I’d like to speculate that it will affect another evolution not only in the way people search — but in internet marketing as well. At this time, there was no mention of how paid advertisers might be affected in the search results; nor did it mention how it might affect web analytics software (Google Analytics, Omniture, etc.) that have a hard time pulling in user data from tabs. Here’s hoping that another side effect of Google Chrome’s “sandbox” concept will be better tracking of visitor behavior through web analytics packages.

Additionally, this news (I imagine) is probably pretty big for Microsoft. Microsoft struck a deal with Hewlett-Packard to add LiveSearch to every new HP computer that comes out. With the evolution of the web moving toward open source and away from proprietary browsing, will Microsoft heed the call and do the same?

I guess only time will tell. For now, I’ll be downloading Chrome and posting my impressions for you after I’ve had the chance to play around with it. For more information about Google Chrome, the official Google blog has a link here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-take-on-browser.html